hagel got heated today. they went after hagel on israel, iran and weapons. in was a time when mccain questioned hagel decision in iraq. >> i can talk about why i made those comments. >> reporter: if confirmed hagel would be the only republican in president obama's cabinet. several republicans said they will vote against him but may not be able to stop his confirmation. >>> in news of the world tonight in the middle east, syria and it's ally iran are questioning retaliation for israel's air strike. syria's civil war has caused international concern that syria's weapons could fall into the hands of extremist groups. >>> in greece, train stations were emptied because of transit worker strikes. greece had to apply for international loans to deal with their budget crisis. >>> more flooding is expected in some places tomorrow, when a river crests. about 7,000 people have been told they won't be going home any time soon. another 23,000 are isolated literally cut off by the highway water and at least six deaths have been blamed so far on all the flooding. >>> she was accused of lipsyncking a

probably one of the very first second-determine nominations that president obama announced. chuck hagel ended up not being in brussels today. he has not become the new defense secretary yet because republicans in the senate have filibustered his nomination. a cabinet nomination has never, ever in the history of the united states been filibustered before. but these republicans in this congress and our time decided that they would do this unprecedented thing to chuck hagel. one of the major items on next week's news calendar is that the republicans are expected to finally relent and allow chuck hagel to be confirmed. but jane mayer published something at the new yorker today that made headlines everywhere today because she turned up the way republicans have been operating in washington at the time they have been trying to stop him. to be clear, even with the unprecedented filibuster, everybody knows that chuck hagel is going to be confirmed as defense secretary. democrats have a majority in the senate. hagel has the support of every single democrat in the senate and he has the support of

going to talk about the key stone pipeline. we'll follow the money. >> john mccain chuck hagel lots of drama. >> comedy before the superbowl weekend and nobody found it funny. >> the can we say is were you right or wrong? that's a pretty straight forward question. i would like the answer whether you were right or wrong and then you are free to elaborate. >> michael hastings, you have something for us about football, don't you? >> yes in advance of superbowl weekend, no one found it funny. >> what about gay guys, any approach you? >> i don't do the gay guys. >> are there any on the 49ers? >> lots of drama between chuck hagel and john mccain. and it's go time. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> all right. the big story of the day today has to do with the excel key stone pipeline. it's been coming up again and again. the obama administration has refused to sign the permits to allow for the complete construction of the pipeline. for those of you who don't know what it is, it's a $7 billion project that would pump more than 800,000-barrels of toxic tar sands crude each day from alberta through america

is threatening to block the nominations of defense secretary chuck hagel and john brennan. graham says he wants more info about the september 11th attack in benghazi, libya, including what president obama did that night. >>> republican senator john mccain said he is leaning towards not voting for chuck hagel. he said hagel was wrong to oppose the troop surge in iran. >>> nevada assembly man steven brooks who was arrested last month has been arrested again. brooks was taken into custody for allegedly attacking a family member and grabbing for a police officer's weapon. >>> congressman and presidential candidate ron paul has filed a complaint with the united nations intellectual property organization for the people who. >> ron: paul.com. they offered ronn paul.org as a free gift but they wanted $250,000 for ron paul.com. trump is city saying the legal system in this country is not a joke. it's not a toy for rich idiots to play with. >> a photo was posed of what he calls his secret service video at a long island elementary school. he says the fifth grade students who want to be secre

hagel's leadership and commitment will be critical to that task. i have met with chuck hagel privately, i've asked him tough questions about iran and israel. i'm satisfied on those points that he will advise the president in according to with -- in accord with those policies but even more important i am struck by his passion, the intensity of his commitment to our men and women in uniform. his caring about them is indicated in so many ways. spontaneously and strongly in his testimony, as well as his private conversations. he will make sure that sexual assault in the military, the epidemic and scourge of rape and assault against men and women who serve and sacrifice for this country will be stopped, that there will be, in fact, zero tolerance not only in word but in deed. and his viewing, for example, of the documentary "invisible war," his understanding that this kind of misconduct is an outrage never to be even implicitly condoned and to be treated as a criminal offense, the most extreme kind of predatory criminal activity, is important to the future of our military and our men and wo

confirmation of hagel got heated today. they went after hagel on israel, iran and weapons. in was a time when mccain questioned hagel decision in iraq. >> i can talk about why i made those comments. >> reporter: if confirmed hagel would be the only republican in president obama's cabinet. several republicans said they will vote against him but may not be able to stop his confirmation. >>> in news of the world tonight in the middle east, syria and it's ally iran are questioning retaliation for israel's air strike. syria's civil war has caused international concern that syria's weapons could fall into the hands of extremist groups. >>> in greece, train stations were emptied because of transit worker strikes. greece had to apply for international loans to deal with their budget crisis. >>> more flooding is expected in some places tomorrow, when a river crests. about 7,000 people have been told they won't be going home any time soon. another 23,000 are isolated literally cut off by the highway water and at least six deaths have been blamed so far on all the flooding. >>> she was accused

hagel may have financial ties to a group called friends of hamas. we've got a problem here, folks. friends of hamas does not exist, and the story is bogus. yet the folks at breitbart are not only sticking to the report, they're attacking anyone who even questions it. this is the way conservative media operates these days in the business world. worse yet, instead of throwing water on these baseless stories, elected officials are fueling the fire by responding to them. senator rand paul said he found hagel's possible tied to a non-existent group concerning. and earlier this week senator lindsey graham of south carolina demanded that hagel respond to a rumor about him published by another right-wing blog. in both cases the claims had absolutely no merit. yet pushing these stories helped the right-wing media and republican lawmakers further their agenda. smear hagel and undermine ultimately president obama. "the new yorker" weighed in on this troubling development earlier and they wrote, "at its best reporting is like science. you form a hypothesis and you try to prove it. but more im

storm be a threat? also in a few minutes u.s. senate expected to vote on chuck hagel president obama's controversial nominee for defense secretary. we'll bring to it live. more on what's going on in egypt right now. a holt air balloon carrying lots of tourists explodes and plummets to the ground. we're finding out how this could happen. we're going live to egypt. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> we begin with the huge winter storm, the national weather service is now calling historic. cities like amarillo, texas, wichita, kansas have broken snowfall records. 45 million in 21 states are being affected one way or another. the storm is blamed for at least three deaths. look at this. it's even dangerous after the storm blows away. in kansas city, the heavy wet snow is causing roofs to collapse. nobody was hurt in this building. but the snow is also bringing down tree limbs on to power lines. in kansas city thousands of people are reported without power. george, what's going on? >> reporter: this is par for the course here in the midwest. this is the second time in a we

nomination of chuck hagel as defense secretary tomorrow for a vote. at least one senator is threatening to block his and john brennan's nomination. senator lindsey graham says he wants more information on the attack on benghazi. independents hagel to be confirmed to secretary of defense until the white house gives us an accounting. >> former vice president and defense secretary dick cheney on the report new his speech. he called president obama's choices for his second terminal security team second rate. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and you'll never need

chuck hagel. during his confirmation hearing, chuck hagel said this about iran. >> i support the president's strong position on containment, as i said. by the way, i have been handed a note that i misspoke and said i supported the president's position on containment. if i said that, i meant to say we don't have a position on containment. >> this got a lot of the tensions and chuck hagel was stumbling all over the place during his hearing. talk about the significance of the substance of what he said. >> because the debate and the conversation in washington has been hysterical, there has been the effort to eliminate options at a very early stage. this a strong effort to make the containment option, essentially a dirty word in washington, d.c. equating content with the acceptance of iran getting a nuclear weapon. signaling the u.s. at the end of the day will not try to prevent a nuclear weapon in iran, but try to find ways to live with it. while the obama administration's policy is not containment, i think it is important to point out that we still have time to be able to find peopl

chuck hagel, not because he has any moral core beliefs about chuck hagel being bad. lindsay graham is doing this because he knows the tea party dispieses him. >> these people do know the president can't just strike something down in the constitution. >> stephanie: i know. jeff in iowa writes steph back in the '90s the nra supported background checks and then the brady law was passed and the gun industry complained about slumping gun sales so the nra decided they are now opposed to background checks. thank you, jeff. [ applause ] >> they want a national database of mentally ill people but not of gun owners and show id when you vote, but not when you buy a weapon. >> stephanie: exactly. nra president convicted of shooting. david keane bragged this week that his pro-gun agenda would work because guns were cool his son was accused in december 2002 for shoot his handgun at another driver while taking his bmw for a jaunt along the potomac. the shot came within inches of the other driver's head and he should be getting out of prison just about now. he has a troubled mental history since high

everything lately, from the benghazi debate to the nomination of chuck hagel. perhaps now a former friend to be a defense secretary. he hit both topics hard this morning on "meet the press." here he is referring to the cover up over benbenghazi. >> of what? >> of the information of concerning the deaths of four brave americans. the information has not been forthcoming. you can obviously believe that it has. i know that it hasn't and i'll be glad to send you a list of the questions that have not been answered. >> is he correct? is there a white house cover up when it comes to the white house attack? >> he sure seems to think so. i don't know why he is so you know, hell bent on trying to find more answers after we've gotten everyone who was directly involved on the record. i really am just wondering if he's just doing this to try to shore up his crede as far as being the military's voice and making sure the servicemen and women know he will fight for them every step of the way. >> it does seem like john mccain has been on the mission lately. he's going after the president on benghazi and other

fall in the white mountains of new hampshire. >>> it is chuck hagel's day number one as defense secretary. here he is, photos of him, taking the oath of office. this is a private ceremony at the pentagon today. the former republican senator from nebraska then spoke to service members and civilian employees. >> to be part of your team who you are is the honor. that's the great privilege. >> hagel also took note of the automatic spending cuts going into effect friday, saying the defense department has a lot of challenges ahead. >>> more disturbing details in the trial of the new york police officer accused of planning to kidnap, cook, and eat women, including his own wife. an fbi agent read a transcript of e-mails and chats between this police officer, his name is gilberto valle, and a buddy of his. look at this. the agent says valle directed his buddy to a video of a female friend, clad in a bikini saying, quote, i'd like to have her arm on a barbecue. and, quote, i'm dying to taste some girl meat. his buddy later chatted back, face meat is, quote, great for sandwiches. valle's a

to vote on the confirmation of chuck hagel today as our nation's next secretary of defense. the vote is likely to come down to 14-12 a split along party lines with republicans against. some want to oppose the nomination, but doesn't look like republicans have support for a filibuster. harry reid is said to want a full vote by tomorrow or thursday. tonight is the president's state of the union address. i'll have more on what to watch for, who's going to be there and whether or not the speech really matters. we're back after the break. stay with us. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone's ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready. at devry.edu. ♪ ♪ [ piano plays ] troy polamalu's going deeper. ♪ ♪ and so is head & shoulders deep clean. [ male announcer ] with 7 benefits it goes deep

. host: chuck hagel -- what is your opinion? guest: i think he is clearly qualified. he has the background in defense. i would be foolish to say his confirmation process went well. he will have to do better than that in terms of building the relationships necessary in the house and the senate because credibility manages -- matters an enormous amount. he will be very dependent on the staff at the pentagon to implement whatever policy he wants. he will need their faith and confidence. he will have to work to earn that in the same thing in the house and the senate. secretary leon panetta and secretary robert gates, they had an enormous amount of credibility in the pentagon and in the congress. in tough times and tough decisions, that enabled them to be very effective. secretary chuck hagel will have to work at that hard it does not come automatically. host: what is your relationship with the chair of the armed services committee, buck mckeon? guest: it is outstanding. we have a long tradition of the chair and the ranking majority and minority working closely together. our joint sta